Videos

Behavioural assays

Drosophila have a sophisticated range of behaviours including circadian rhythms, learning and memory, and sleep. Many of the genes and genetic pathways that drive these behaviours in Drosophila are found to be similar in humans, providing a powerful genetic model organism in which to study mechanisms of human disorders.

A wide variety of behavioural assays with Drosophila can be automated in the Zantiks MWP, as illustrated in the videos above, these include studies that look at:

Drosophila, a model organism

Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit-fly, is one of the most extensively used model organisms in biomedical research. Drosophila has many advantages which has made it ideal to study the molecular mechanisms of behaviour, development and human diseases for more than a century. These fruit flies are easy and inexpensive to maintain in the laboratory and breed large numbers of genetically identical progeny. They also have a short generation cycle and life span making large scale, high-throughput genetic screening faster and more effective.

The well-developed genetic techniques and tools available for Drosophila allow investigation and modification of their genes quickly and easily. Drosophila and humans have shared evolutionary roots and many basic biological, physiological, and neurological processes are conserved between humans and Drosophila. They have tissues and organs that are functionally equivalent to mammalian structures (Neckameyer & Argue, 2013). The genome of Drosophila has been fully sequenced and many of the genes present in Drosophila are conserved in humans (Adams et al., 2000). About 75% of human disease-causing genes have an equivalent found in the fly, enabling modelling of many human diseases (Reiter et al., 2001).